Jeremy Crutchley experienced close contact with elephants this week as part of his preparations for Sacred Elephant, his new one-man show.

Multiple award winning actor Jeremy Crutchley spent a day with elephants at the Aquila Game Reserve two hours outside Cape Town, as part of his preparation for his new show Sacred Elephant that will have its world premiere at the Intimate Theatre at the end of this week.

Of his experience at Aquila with the elephants, Crutchley said, “This is simply one of the most wonderful  and inspiring experiences of my life. For such an ancient, powerful and gentle creature to allow fearless contact confirms the profound compassion at the heart of all our work in Sacred Elephant. It haunts me beautifully.”

Sacred Elephant is an adaptation of the celebrated work by poet Heathcote Williams and Crutchley is directed by Hyland in this simple, startling and moving one-man show that passionately reveals the soul of the earth’s largest land-living mammal. Sacred Elephant is a powerful alchemy of verse using fact and feeling to demolish the myths that keep us complacent about the fate of one of the most intelligent and profoundly skilled of all the world’s creatures.

Jeremy Crutchley is known for his diverse and unique roles in theatre as well as on film. He was most recently seen onstage in the internationally acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winning I Am My Own Wife for which he won two Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards in 2010 for Best Actor and for Best Solo Performance. He also won the Fleur for Best actor for his role as Shylock in the 2009 production of The Merchant of Venice. While continuing to appear in various film roles, Sacred Elephant is his latest theatrical challenge and he is delighted and inspired to be working again with Geoffrey Hyland for the first time since their collaboration on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the 2006 Maynardville season.

Sacred Elephant, with lighting and costumes by Fleur du Cap Theatre Award winners Luke Ellenbogen and Illke Louw respectively, runs Tuesdays to Saturdays from 2 to 18 February at 8:30pm at the Intimate Theatre on Hiddingh Campus, 57 Orange Street. Tickets cost R65 per person for the previews on 2, 3 February and thereafter R100 per person with all bookings via 021 480 7129 or via .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)